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Top tips for promoting your Law Week event

We’re six weeks away from the start of Law Week and the event program is filling up fast. Here at the foundation we’re working hard to spread the word about the range of great events taking place in Melbourne and across regional Victoria from 16 to 22 May 2016. Last month we shared our tips on how to hold a successful event, this month we’d like to share our ideas on how you can publicise your Law Week event to help get as many people as possible, through the door:

1. Display a Law Week poster

During April we’re distributing Law Week posters and postcards to libraries, community legal centres and MPs right across Victoria. Everyone who has registered a Law Week event (our Event Partners) will receive a pack of two posters and 30 postcards. We’d really like you to display them in a prominent place, alongside your own event posters or flyers, to help promote the whole Law Week program. If you’re not hosting an event but would like to receive posters and postcards to help us promote Law Week, then please get in touch.

2. Get active on social media

Social media is a great way to spread the word about your event. If your organisation has a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or other social media page, post details about your event here. Make sure you use the official #LawWeek hashtag so we can find your event on our Twitter feed and retweet it. Start tweeting as soon as your event is live on our website (check the program here), then tweet again in the lead-up to the event, and even during the event if possible. We find that including a photo with your tweet greatly increases the chance that your post will be shared and engaged with.

3. Contact the media

A great way to tell a lot of people about your event is to call the news desk at your local newspaper or radio station. It’s a good idea to prepare a media release that outlines the details about your event so you can send this through once you’ve made contact – we’ve produced a template media release for you to adapt, which is available here.

Make sure your media release is snappy and concise – one A4 page will do. Focus on what you’re trying to achieve with your event and why it’s worth attending, and please remember to link it back to the overall Law Week program. We recommend including a quote from someone in your organisation to bring your media release to life.

The perfect time to send your media release is a few weeks before your event, which leaves you time to follow up with your contact if you haven’t heard anything back. If you want further advice about drafting releases, or want us to have a look over your release before you send it out, then get in touch.

4. Contact local businesses

You can also call your local council, library or other services and ask them to include a summary of your event – the key points from your media release – in their newsletters and websites. You should try to get this out as soon as you can to ensure you don’t miss their deadlines. You can even add your event to free ‘what’s on’ listings in your local area. Some examples of free listing websites include www.eventfinda.com.au and www.victoria365.com.au

5. Invite your clients

Tell your clients about your event and encourage them to spread the word. If you’ve hosted a Law Week event before it’s a great idea to invite those who have attended in the past. Send an invitation by email about a month prior and a reminder about the event closer to the time.